


Rescue

by orphan_account



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, English is not my mother language, F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Named Rally to match the gender, Ralph as a female, Ralph gender reversal fic, So sorry for the errors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21659278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Jack Merridew is missing. As the leader of the camp, Rally somehow ends up searching for her friend-turned-enemy. What if they accidentally encounter each other in a shelter and have to stay together until the rainstorm passes?One-shot.
Relationships: Jack Merridew/Original Female Character(s), Jack Merridew/Ralph
Kudos: 14





	Rescue

Jack Merridew is missing. 

Rally should be relieved about it. Glad, even. Often she wonders if the troublemaker will murder her in her sleep for the leadership. The mere thought of his makeshift spear tearing open her throat has been keeping Rally awake, somehow even more scary than the darkness falling upon the island at this time of the day.

But she isn’t. 

Rally hates to admit, but a part of her is beginning to worry about the missing boy, her arrogant, spiteful rival, for whom she has kept her eyes open in the most peaceful hours of the nights. 

Most kids have already fallen asleep, their soft breathing — and occasionally, snoring — bring Rally back to when they first crashed on the island, when everything is in a pleasant order and none of the children has intention to cross their weapons. Jack Merridew was then no more than the leader of the choir, ridiculously good-looking in his black cloak. Rally giggled, before the memory of Jack’s blood smeared face flashes before her eyes. 

He might have been dead already somewhere in the woods. She shivers at the thought, and her feet carry her forward against her will. 

The sun has set, it is going to be too dangerous to leave their camp. The snakes may come out at any time and swallow Rally as a whole. But for some reasons, Rally can’t care less. He is her friend, and she is not going to abandon a friend, even one she’d rather not have at her side. 

* * *

This is a bad idea. Rally curses as she spots the black clouds beginning to gather at the horizon. She looks aback and irritatedly finds that the camp’s no longer at sight. She has already ventured too far into the woods. There’s no way she can get back to the camp before the rain pours down. 

Why is she out to look for Merridew anyways? Jack might have arrived at the camp shortly after she left, and her efforts of searching for him would turn out to be all in vain. Tomorrow, when they find her rain-soaked body lying somewhere in this damned wood, he might even laugh at her idiocy. 

She shudders, anger storms into her at the thought of her enemy laughing at her corpse. He’s not that foul-hearted, her mind argues. 

And she likes him. She also has a strange feeling that the liking is reciprocated, though she cannot say for sure. Rally shuts her eyes for a moment, an image of him smiling at her during their first exploration of the island pops up.

She smiles and for a moment, she almost doesn’t want to hide her feelings.

Almost.

There is no way back now, however. All she can do is running forward and trying to look for possible natural shelters. Rally narrows her eyes, vaguely remembering from one of her previous expeditions that there’s a very noticeable cave.

She looks up, trying to locate the cave from her memories. It doesn’t take her long, for bring one of the oldest kids and the leader of the camp she is required to be sensitive about these landmarks. There it is, with a few creepers hanging from the top, covering whatever it is inside. Hope lights up Rally’s mood. Judging by the distance, she will have enough time to get their before the rain falls. 

She bites her lips when thunder growls in the distance. Then, Rally runs faster. 

* * *

By the time she arrives at the cave, the rain has also approached. Rally jumps into the cave with no hesitation, just in time to avoid being hit by the first rain drops. She forgot to bring anything that can help her make a fire, so though her back is streaked with cold sweat thinking of the beasts and snakes in the dark, she is forced to walk blindly deeper into the cave.

It isn’t long before she comes into sense that something has been very, very wrong. She smells blood, a mixture of dried and fresh. Something glitters at the corner and the faint shadows move on the walls. A feeling of familiarity brushes against her mind.

“Jack?”She half-whispers. If she mistakes one of the beastie-kind for her friend, it’s better to whisper than shout.

“You guys actually looked for me.” His voice, still childish but dipped in darkness, rings somewhere to her right. 

“Not us. Just me.” She says, inching closer. Rally has no idea why she feels so excited. Maybe because it proves her rash, stupid rainstorm outing doesn’t turn out to be fruitless. She has found who she was looking for, after all.

In the utter blackness of the cave, she can barely make out the silhouette of his face and catch a glimpse of his bright blue eyes. Fierce as always, those blue oceans have their way of drawing her in, drowning her in the baffled feelings of love and hate.

Rally breathes deeply, forcing herself to look away. “Why didn’t you return to the camp before sunset?”

When Jack speaks, he sounds irritated. “There isn’t a rule-“he stops half-sentence, as if noticing the expression Rally is giving him, “Fine. I chased a pig into the woods, then I ended up here because I can’t get back soon enough to avoid rainstorm.”

“Well, I did warn you-“

Rally is going to further comment on his absolute mania about hunting when he interrupts, “Thank you, though. For looking for me. I thought you would assume that I was already rotten away somewhere. ”

That is...unexpected.

Rally is speechless. What’s the last time has he been thankful? Probably sometime long before the day she met him after the plane crash.

“You’re welcome.” She replies, uncertain if he just wanted to make fun of her. 

Out of the cave, lightning strikes across the sky. A rainstorm starts to rage outside, bringing in a strong wind that frightens them both.

“I guess we’re stuck in this cave tonight.” He sighs. 

Stuck in a cave with a bloodlust who has the intention to kill her just to take her place as a leader? What a good mess she has gotten herself into.

Even worse, she begins to feel drowsy after a long day of work, and her eyelids keep falling together, no matter how much she wills them not to. In her frustration and sleepiness, Rally yawns. 

She almost punches Jack when she hears his chuckle. Then, she remembers how much she misses the sound coming from her friend and immediately stops any possible movement of violence. 

“You can rest if you are tired.” The tall boy says to Rally, whose mind is already half-unconscious. “The beasts won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“But you will.” She mutters the words aloud. “You will stab me in the back-“

“How low have you been thinking of me.”says Jack, his tone sour. “Even you lost hope in me. Haven’t you, Rally?”

She says the first thing that comes into her head. “I always believe in you.” She murmurs, “I’m just afraid. After what you have done. You-”she chokes on her words, “you acted barbaric, and you almost killed me.”

Silence falls between the two. Judging by the sounds of footsteps, Rally is almost certain that he is walking in her direction.

“Just rest, Rally.” He says calmly. For some reasons, he seems so different to her right now from the boy who puts his ambition in leadership before friendship. “If you have difficulty trusting me, I will sleep at the same time. Deal?”

Rally doesn’t understand why tears come into her eyes. Maybe she is just too exhausted. Her eyelids feel even heavier than before, as she quietly says, “Deal.”

* * *

She doesn’t know when she has agreed to fall asleep in the cave with her dearest enemy. She also certainly doesn’t know when she has agreed for him to wrap his arms around her waist. She doesn’t remember burying her head in the crook of his neck and appreciates the smell of the woods radiating from his pale skin. 

The rainstorm has stopped, but despite all the odds, Rally’s instinct tells her to stay here for as long as she likes.

No one has been coming to rescue these lost children. However, in the arms of the boy she loves, Rally thinks that maybe in some ways, Jack Merridew has just been rescued. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm all for enemies-to-lovers ships.


End file.
